by Calum MacLeod and Lindsay Deutsch, USA TODAY Network

by Calum MacLeod and Lindsay Deutsch, USA TODAY Network

BEIJING - China's former leader was "aloof," former U.S. secretary of State Hillary Clinton recalls in her latest memoir. The nation he ran is the "epicenter of the antidemocratic movement in Asia," she writes in a book with a whole chapter on human rights lawyer Chen Guangcheng.

His dramatic escape - from house arrest in a Chinese village to refuge at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing - sparked a major diplomatic spat for Clinton to resolve. And that's just one reason why rejecting Hard Choices was an easy choice for China's always-nervous publishers.

The world's most populous nation has placed an "effective ban" on the book, according to her U.S. publisher. Simon & Schuster president Jonathan Karp said in an interview with Buzzfeed that Chinese publishers have declined to purchase the translation rights for the book, and it will not be imported in English by China's major buyer. Sixteen other countries have foreign rights to the book.

In China's one-party system, authorities maintain a strict system of censorship - mentioned in Clinton's book - to prevent public criticism of the ruling Communist Party. Publishers, like website managers, know that sensitive material can see works banned and business licenses withdrawn, so self-censorship is a widespread and accepted part of business life here.

In the publishing sector worldwide, books are often pre-purchased "blind" so readers in other countries can have them soon after publication date. However, "no one in China was willing to buy the book blind because the political sensitivities involved in publishing any author who might be critical of China," Karp told Buzzfeed.

Clinton became a sensitive figure for the Chinese Communist Party long before she took over as secretary of State. As first lady, Clinton made a splash by speaking out about human rights at the 1995 United Nations Conference on Women in Beijing. In 2003, Chinese editors made significant cuts and changes, without Clinton's approval, to the Chinese version of her first memoir, Living History. She is widely perceived in China as having been a tough adversary to deal with during her time at the State Department.